Goddess Goodies
a novel by Mardi
Ballou
Here’s
an excerpt. Enjoy!
Grudgingly, I followed him. Maybe when we were alone I’d be able to communicate
with him, get to the bottom of whatever was going on.
Walking behind him, seeing his still tight butt and the way he almost
loped, I realized with a pang that I still loved him. Izzy’s voice instantly
invaded my head -- How dumb is that?
Very dumb. But my head and heart were not on the same wavelength. Knowing
my feelings were unwise didn’t make them disappear.
Derek’s office still looked the same, probably one of the few things
at Diana’s Delights that hadn’t changed for the worse. “Sit down.” He pointed
to one of the cognac leather armchairs I’d talked him into. I expected him
to sit in the other one. Instead, he sat behind his desk. “Can I get you
some coffee?”
“Just tell me what the hell is going on.”
He sat forward in his brown tweed ergonomically-correct desk chair, put
his elbows on his desk and steepled his fingers in front of his face. Then
he seemed to come to some sort of resolution. He clapped his hands, shrugged
and began to fiddle with a stray paper clip. “This hurts me to say, Diana,
but change is inevitable.”
“That’s it?”
“No. There’s more. Look, Diana, you made a wonderful contribution getting
Diana’s Delights started.”
I looked around for something heavy to throw at him. “I’ve made a contribution?”
My ideas, my family recipes and the ways I’d improved them were the foundation
for Diana’s Delights. There’d never have been a company without me. “Are
you nuts?”
“No need to get offensive. You’re the one who wanted this conversation.”
“Hello. You don’t think we need to talk about what’s going on here?”
“Of course we need to talk.” He sat back. “But I think any exchanges
we have from now on should be, well, civilized. You know, one adult communicating
with another.”
“I guess you need some talk time with an adult considering the child
you’re now living with.”
He shook his head. “See? That’s just the kind of unreasonable dig I was
hoping to avoid. And I couldn’t help seeing how flustered Melinda looked.
I don’t want you saying or doing anything to upset her. She’s extremely sensitive
these days.”
About as sensitive as a vulture circling a fresh corpse. “Who said you
can make all the rules?”
“I’m sure you’ll agree we need parameters for how we behave together.
I’m willing to set them or listen to your ideas.”
“Civilized.”
He ignored my sarcasm as effectively as he’d been ignoring everything
else about me -- for how long?
“In light of your contributions to this business, it behooves us to behave
like professionals in all our transactions.” He was wearing his lawyer
-- oops, attorney -- hat.
I tried to quiet my roiling nerves and stomach. I took a deep breath.
“I take exception to your reducing my role in this business to some contributions,
but I’ll put that aside now so you can say the rest of whatever it is you
intend to.”
“Exception duly noted.” And probably relegated to the circular file,
I thought.
“As I started to say, we must face the need for change, to go forward.”
He opened his arms wide as if to signal expansiveness. “In order for us to
grow this business, we need to shed some of the old-fashioned ways we’ve
been doing things. It’s time to move our business into the twenty-first century.”
“Can the bull, Derek. You know, cut to the chase. We’ve had this
discussion before, and always concluded that we’d stay with the founding
vision -- my founding vision -- that’s served Diana’s Delights so well
over the years.” I got up and walked around to his side of the desk, looking
at him full face. “Bottom line. What the hell are you talking about for
Diana’s Delights?”
“I just told you.” He withdrew.
“You just spouted some words but didn’t actually say anything.” I stood
my ground.
He chuckled dryly. “I’m trying to put things as simply as I can
so you can follow. Please, Diana, go sit back down. I’m feeling a bit claustrophobic
with you standing over me.”
“I’ll sit down, but you have to be straight with me, Derek. You’ve
told me something about change. Be more specific.”
He seemed to relax as I moved away and resumed sitting. Now he looked
at his watch. “As a courtesy, I’m staying here with you and not going to
the meeting with Melinda, though I should be there. But we both thought it
was important for me to take the time to talk to you. Still, it would really
be good if I could get to at least part of the meeting.”
I gritted my teeth. “How sweet of you to take a few minutes to explain
how you’ve determined to screw up my life and the company based on my family’s
recipes. And to think, we might be inconveniencing sweet Melinda.”
“Sarcasm is never attractive.”
“Neither is betrayal. Now tell me what the hell is going on here.”
©
2007 Mardi Ballou
